Episode 220: The Power of Thought-Terminating Bad Guy Labels
Added 2025-04-30 18:01:16 +0000 UTC"American Extremists Aiding Radicals Across Border," trumpeted the Detroit Free Press in 1919. "707 Illegal Aliens Arrested in Checkpoint Crackdown," reported the Los Angeles Times in 1987. "87 Bronx gang members responsible for nine years of murders and drug-dealing charged in largest takedown in NYC history," announced the New York Daily News in 2016. "'Top secret' Hamas documents show that terrorists intentionally targeted elementary schools and a youth center," claimed NBC News in 2023.
Each of these headlines includes a label for a certain type of Bad Guy. Whether it’s the "Extremist," the "Illegal Alien," the "Gang Member," or the "Terrorist," these terms—and their related cousins—seek to exceptionalize the alleged transgressions of their targets, separate them from both the law and history and dehumanize them, all while priming media audiences for crueler laws, harsher policing, longer incarceration and sometimes even extrajudicial punishment. The terms, of course, don’t have clear, universally accepted definitions—nor are they supposed to—their use is often heavily racialized and, by their very nature, subject to the whims and ideologies of the Security State and the media doing its bidding.
What effects, then, do these Bad Guy Labels have on public perceptions? How do they serve to foreclose critical thinking about who is deemed inside the bounds of due process and humanization and who is categorically an other in urgent need of disappearing and punishment?
On this episode, we examine four thought-terminating Bad Guy labels, analyze their origins, why they rose to prominence and explain how they are selectively evoked in order to turn off people’s brains and open up space for quick and cruel state violence.
Our guest is attorney and author Alec Karakatsanis.
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Guest
Alec Karakatsanis (@equalityAlec) is a public defender and founder of Civil Rights Corps. He writes the Copaganda Newsletter and is the author of Usual Cruelty: The Complicity of Lawyers in the Criminal Injustice System (The New Press, 2019). His new book, Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News (The New Press, 2025) was published this month.
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Show Notes
News Literacy Edition: Covering extremism
Kelly McBride | February 20, 2025 | NPR
Media Hype Set Up Tren de Aragua to Serve as Trump’s New Bogeyman
Belén Fernández | January 25, 2025 | FAIR
CBS Staffers Escalate Criticism of Tony Dokoupil's Hostility on Palestine
Justin Baragona | October 9, 2024 | Zeteo
Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim | April 15, 2024 | The Intercept
Hamilton Nolan | October 9, 2023 | How Things Work
On Terrorists and Freedom Fighters
Khaled A. Beydoun | October 20, 2022 | Harvard Law Review
Daniel L. Byman | September 22, 2020 | Brookings
Dozens Condemned by Media as ‘Gang Members’ Not Actually Gang Members, Study Confirms
Adam Johnson | April 26, 2019 | FAIR
The Largest Gang Raid in NYC History Swept Up Dozens of Young People Who Weren’t in Gangs
Alice Speri and Stephanie Tangkilisan | April 25, 2019 | The Intercept
How News Media Talk About Terrorism: What the Evidence Shows
Erin M. Kearns and Amarnath Amarasingam | April 5, 2019 | Just Security
The FBI Won’t Hand Over Its Surveillance Records on ‘Black Identity Extremists,’ so We’re Suing
Nusrat Choudhury and Malkia Cyril | March 21, 2019 | ACLU
Terrorism: a very brief history
Mats Fridlund | March 8, 2019 | The Conversation
Caroline Mala Corbin | 2017 | Fordham Law Review
The Delegitimizing Power of the ‘Terrorism’ Label
Anais Chagankerian | July 18, 2013 | E-International Relations
The Times Shifts on ‘Illegal Immigrant,’ but Doesn’t Ban the Use
Christine Haughney | April 23, 2013 | The New York Times
How ‘‘undocumented workers’’ and ‘‘illegal aliens’’ affect prejudice toward Mexican immigrants
Matthew R. Pearson | 2010 | Social Influence
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Transcript
For a full transcript of this episode, go here. You can also find transcripts of past episodes, live shows, Beg-a-Thons, Interviews and News Briefs here.
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Credits
Senior Producer: Florence Barrau-Adams
Producer: Julianne Tveten
Production Assistant: Trendel Lightburn
Newsletter: Marco Cartolano
Music: Grandaddy
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Comments
I just have to say, the guest's comments around 1:05:00 regarding the driving forces behind, "why are these people coming here? What are the actions of the United States over the past 50, 60, 70 years that may be influencing this movement?" hit the nail on the head. You have a history of US military intervention throughout Central and South America in particular that makes the rhetoric around migrants, immigration, and an entire set of ethnic groups infuriating to deal with.
Gregory Sheppard
2025-04-30 23:42:25 +0000 UTC
